Last Chance To Make This Right
by Eliza4892
Summary: Post Season 3 finale. AlexAva. Alex gets one last chance to fix things.


When he walked into Emerald City Bar in a suit Joe started pouring drinks before he'd even asked. Better yet he looked almost ready for it, and after a quick scan of the bar's patrons he could understand. Shepherd, still clad in his suit threw darts with a sort of lackluster passion; while Torres was sitting at one of the corner tables, drinking and staring off into space. Neither of them acknowledged his presence, and he ignored them as well. Obviously the wedding had gone wrong, but he knew he'd hear enough about it at home.

He was on his third drink before Joe finally approached him. "Figured I'd see you tonight." Joe looked over at the other two doctors. "It's been a parade of formal wear all night."

"That's not why I'm here," he replied, his suspicions about the wedding confirmed.

"Bad things really seem to happen in clusters with you people." Joe studied him for a moment. "This isn't about Izzie Stevens is it?"

Alex all but laughed. "No, it's not about Izzie." He and Izzie had their own things going at the moment. They were just friends and that was what worked for both of them.

He finished his drink, and Joe set about refilling it, as he asked. "So this is about you and Addison then?"

"You're off tonight, Joe." He told him.

"In other words no. Alright, so you got me." He could tell Joe wasn't used to not knowing what was going on. All of the doctors seemed to end up at Joe's at one point or another, and so Joe usually picked up gossip. He knew more about the relationships they were in then they did usually. "But it is about a girl?"

He could give him that much. "Yes."

Joe nodded, knowingly. "Is she pretty?"

Alex half-glared over the rim of his glass. "What kind of question is that?"

"Kind of brownish-reddish hair, brown eyes?" Joe inquired, going back to cleaning glasses.

"What are you, a mind reader?" Alex asked, annoyed with him. He didn't want to think about her, or how he'd fucked up again.

"No, just a lucky guess." Alex looked at him like it was the biggest load of bullshit he'd heard yet, and Joe added. "Well it helps that she's standing there looking for you."

Alex very nearly choked on his drink, turning around to make sure Joe was lying, and finding out he wasn't, because there she was, not far from the door, scanning the tables for him. And then she caught his eye.

"Shit," he muttered, downing what remained of his drink like it could save him somehow. Then she was next to him, and Joe was doing that thing where it looked like he was working when he was actually eavesdropping. "I thought you were heading back home."

"We were, but I convinced Jeff that we should wait until morning. I was pretty tired, so we're staying in a hotel not too far from here." Ava admitted, taking the seat beside him.

"Shouldn't you be in bed, then? I'm still not sure you should've been released yet." He said, doing his best to play the role of her doctor rather than her friend. Or her anything else for that matter.

"I'm fine." She said quickly. "Truth is, the way he's all over me suddenly, it's kind of making me crazy. He feels so bad about before, and now he's trying to make up for it by waiting on me hand and foot, and it's all too much."

Alex wasn't sure why she was telling him all this. All it did was prove his point. All it did was show that the guy really did love her. That he was the good guy; the right choice. "He's just trying to make amends."

"Well maybe I don't want to make amends." She replied, her hand landing on top of his on the bar, a mirror of his actions all those times before in the hospital. "I don't want to go back there if there's even the slightest chance that I have something to stay for."

"I'm not going to tell you to leave him. I can't and I won't." He told her, firm in his resolve. He didn't break up marriages. He was an asshole, but he wasn't _that _guy.

She laughed, almost sadly. "You think you're what's going to end my marriage? Don't flatter yourself." He looked at her for the first time since she'd sat down. "I'm not leaving for him, I'm leaving because it's home." She glanced down at the surface in front of her briefly. "And I'm not even sure of that anymore."

"Then go because of that." His earlier bout of courage that had prompted him to run back to the hospital and tell her how he really felt had apparently disappeared, and been replaced by the same self-deprecation he'd been experiencing recently. "I'm not someone you stay for."

She pushed a piece of hair that had fallen into her face behind her ear, looking more and more irritated by the second. "Okay, I don't know who the hell drilled it through your head that you're not worth anything, but you need to wake up and realize that maybe they were wrong." Joe caught his eye, with raised brows. "I meant what I said Alex, you're one of the good guys."

He shook his head. "You don't know what you would be getting yourself into."

"Neither do you." Ava said, and he had to admit that she had a point. He knew a woman who had been a blank slate when he first met her. Now there were memories, experiences, so many things he didn't know. There wasn't much he knew about her, when he looked at it that way. "And isn't that half the fun? Figuring the other person out."

"Look, I saved you okay. And then I was your doctor, except I overstepped my bounds. It's not your fault, but what your feeling all comes back to that. It's not real." This isn't what we wanted, but this was what should happen. She was not going to be his Denny. No good could come of that.

"Oh my God, are you even hearing me? I mean, are we even speaking the same language, because this is…" she trailed, noticing how loud she was getting. Then she leaned up and kissed him, her hand coming to rest on his cheek. He could feel the cool metal of her wedding band against his skin, and it almost made him break away. But she was having none of that.

When she finally did pull away he was left wondering if she actually needed to breathe or if she had learned not to.

As if proving him wrong, she exhaled before she asked, "Did that feel fake?" He didn't reply, liking where this was going but not about to let her know that. He'd wanted to do that for awhile now, but always managed to talk himself out of it. Which, now that he thought about it, was not like him at all. When the hell did he grow up? "I'm not asking for much, I just need you to give this a chance. I need you to be my reason."

It went against any morals he actually had (and those were few and far between). She was a patient, she was married, and she seemed to think he might be someone he really wasn't. Maybe she was a bad judge of character. Maybe her marriage really was over before any of this began. Maybe, somehow, this could work. Wasn't it about time something in his life did?

"I think you should…" he began, watching her face fall the same way it had at the end of their last conversation. Last chance. He had to finish. "I think you should stay."

She let out a breath, her face visibly brightening, as she threw her arms around his neck, with a whispered, "Thank you."

For the first time, there was freedom in her eyes that night, like she'd been released from some obligation and now everything had potential. He wondered if that was all in his head; he hoped it wasn't. And he thought that even if this turned sour (and it very well might) there would still always be tonight, and damned if it might've all just been worth it then.


End file.
